Midnight Mischief (Journey Of Brothers Sequel)
Sometimes, when we are all alone and the moon is high. When those around us have turned. When your heart aches for the one that left. Sometimes life drowns out our screams for help like the rapids from a mountain. When your heart is torn, and you're struggling, the lines between wrong and right blur. And falling through stars, we land back in reality... our paws soaked in the blood of an innocent soul. And as those paws slid into the neck of another, traced through his screams, and took his life with her paw deep in his stomach, the surge of dreams hit Kaliq's mind like a forbidden mushroom. And in a voice almost as sincere as that of his brother, a wolf spoke into his mind as he watched the scene bellow.
A yellow flower turned black under the moon.
He shouldn't have left so soon, he said.
And from black, she morphed to blue and,
Then under the moon light, she raised her head.
And dripping off her petals was the evil of red.
She is fierce and pretty by day but faded at night.
Crawling and growling, she moved through the night.
And that's when it went oh so awfully wrong.
Her body clawed with another. He howled but silence would alert no one. A claw in his neck and a tooth to his snout brought him down like the prey of a deer. And watching his last breath in eyes of betrayal, she stepped forth. Picking a tired flower by her scruff, and into the night, she ran off with the pup. And in red light, another body stood against the slumbering wolves and in the dead wolf's blood, in Jaasau's blood, she drew an arrow to where their paw-prints would lead. Carrying his body, she followed her daughter, dragging the wolf by his scruff.
A jolt of electricity shot through him and from his mate's fur, he lifted his head, eyes open and alert. Heavily breathing, Kaliq's ears shot back and he closed his eyes. It's just another dream, it's just another dream. Tell me it doesn't mean anything, someone, please. He touched his nose gently against Taru's cheek to wake her. But as her eyes opened and looked into his, like magic she could read him as an open book. Looking to the others around her, she hushed him.
Kaliq let out a whine and as his eyes adjusted to the moon light, he gasped.
"W-what the heck?"
The sick stench of blood touched his nose, his dreams flashed through his mind and before him in where a body would compress snow into the ground, blood splatters coated the scene and an arrow of sin pointed to the direction of danger.
Kaliq stepped forwards to look closer, sniffing the blood and letting the scents of those who betrayed them drift to his nose.
"How dare they!" he roared, startling the sleeping lumps of fur keeping each other warm, one of them raising their head a little to investigate. "This is the work of a wolf. I swear when I find out who did this--"
"Kaliq--"
"I'll tear them to shreds, I'll rip them--"
"Kaliq!"
"Limb from limb--"
"Kaliq shut up and listen to me! Xaria is missing!"
Kaliq's ears slid forwards, then back. He spun around, taking a few steps to stand beside his mate, looking down to where the pups were. "Vaddon, Jaafar... oh hell. Xaria."
"What do we do?" she asked.
"Find her," he said, turning back to where blood stained the snow. The insides of his chest twisted and whined like a new-born in the talons of an eagle.
Taru moved to stand beside him. He moved his head under her chin and gently pushed her back.
"Look after our pups. I'll go get Xaria. They need your protection."
"Anyone could have taken them. And you need my help."
"But you need to say here with them."
"We could wake the others up, someone else could look after them."
"No, no they can't. Stay here. If others find out they'll panic."
"No, they won't-- they'll--"
"Stop. Just stop. If others find out they'll question my judgment of character and see me as weak. Losing a pup means we'll be cursed, hon, cursed. And my family is already cursed. I don't want to be doubled cursed, I--"
"I'm your family."
"I know. And they are too. Please look after our pups. I'll be back soon, okay?"
She looked up at him, ears back, but she held in her whine. She leaned forward and he touched their noses together gently, before turning away. Stepping forwards, his paw landed in the blood of another, and slowly, he launched himself into the cold night, thunder crackling over head as rain began to belt his fur like bullets of a hunter, matching the increasing tension in his chest.
Rain thumped down and fear rose as he crawled up the hill in the cold snow. The rain had fallen to ice as it beat him, and the chilled wind threatened to hide the paw-prints of the two that had betrayed them.
Kaliq raised his head into the wind, drawing his lip back as he snarled. He pushed his paws deep into the snow to stay stable against the wind, and the scent of the dead only grew stronger the further he went, despite the weather's advances. Faintly, he was sure he could hear the whines of a pup ahead.
What if I don't get her back? They'll run Taru and I out.
He looked down at the necklace his mother gave him. In time, it was meant to go to Xaria.
Dragging himself over the hill, the ice against his fur and the howling winds felt stronger. Through frosted eyes and a gleam of sorrow, hanging from the jaws of the one who had just lost their final chance, his daughter whined for help.
Zaneta dropped the pup down in the snow and the pup flopped back with a whine, shivering against its cold touch and the fear she was threatened with. Across from her, pelt patched with blood, a middle-aged wolf stood over the body of Jaasau, the murdered wolf.
Nuru.
Kaliq drew his lip back in a snarl, piercing gaze switching between the two of them and then softening as his eyes fell upon his pup.
"What the hell do you think you're doing with her? Move away from my daughter!" Kaliq growled, threatening them with a paw forward, letting his claws draw lines in the snow.
Zaneta portrayed a vacant expression and as Nuru turned to look at the pup, her snout molded into one of only utmost disgust.
"You broke her heart. You took Cai away from her, and you took Kendrik from me. Now you've made us bleed the life of another in attempt to rid the disesteemed pup," Nuru growled.
"You're making us do this."
"You're making a big mistake. Step away from my pup and move away from the body. I banish you!" The male growled, baring his teeth as he took another step forward.
"Fancy word for a small-minded creature," Nuru snarled. "Two against one? Seems a little unfair, doesn't it?"
"If you have any respect for our culture, you'll choose either yourself or Zaneeta to fight for you."
The female piped up, yet the older wolf pushed the young warrior back with her tail. Zaneta stepped back in submission as Nuru stepped forth.
Slowly the two animals circled each other. Kaliq risked a glance to his pup and then Zaneta who sat in the snow a few tail-lengths away. What was he fighting for? My pups, my daughter, my mate. Our culture. Her life. My life?
But what is she fighting for? Love. She misses her mate. I miss Kendrik too. Zaneta missed Cai. But to fight for just this, something we can get through with talking and listening. Is this fight justified? Do we really have to fight?
But a bite to his shoulder sealed the salient battle. He felt her sink deep into the flesh of his shoulder. He jerked back, returning the attack by thumping his paw into her throat. Stunned for a brief moment, Kaliq regained himself, but instead of launching for her throat, he aimed his teeth for her nape. She pushed up into his under belly, He missed, rolling to the ground winded. Looming over him she launched her second attack but crashed down into the earth as he rolled. Pulling her frosted fur from the snow she searched for him and through her moment of hesitation, his teeth clamped onto her nape and with his strength, he held her to the ground.
"Do it then, sink your teeth in."
Kaliq loosened his grip but before he could speak, another body slammed into him. They rolled and tussled, snow flicking up from the ground as they thrashed, clawed and bit. Zaneta's swiped through the flesh of his cheek, her teeth latched and tore a bite through his ear. Huffing in pain, blood rolling down the side of his face, he kept the roll for a moment longer and pushed his paws into her chest, pinning her back against the ground with a snarl.
"What the hell! How dare you!"
She thrashed and rolled again. His eyes widened as her maw engulfed his throat. Her teeth sunk in, he gasped against her for another breath. Things began to fade into black.
Just as he felt the doom of death about to swallow, the blood drooling from his neck, the jaws released, and the body collapsed on top of him. He gasped for breath, groaning and coughing up his own saliva and blood, spitting it onto the ground beside him as a paw slid the body off him and Zaneta rolled onto her back beside him, a huge chunk of flesh ripped from her throat and spat out beside her.
Nuru watched as she drowned in her own blood before her gaze met his. For a moment, for the first time, he felt he saw empathy In her cold stone eyes. Moving to sit the pup beside her father, she ran off into the distance and Kaliq rested against the ground, panting heavily. The pup nuzzled into his side and eventually, he fell asleep.
***
"Mum! Dad! Wake up! Story times not over!"
"Mmm I think it is. I need my rest. My breathing is still bad..." Kaliq said softly.
"Nooo, dad," Jaffar barked, wiggling against his brother Vaddon and his sister Xaria. "That was too long ago! You can't still be hurt! I could challenge you for alpha right now while you're so weak!"
"Things take time to heal... I'm just glad your sister was too young to remember it. Besides, it's a wolf's honour to only challenge an alpha when they're at full health.
"Well, honour is stupid anyways!" Jaffar snorted.
"You may think that now, but your opinion will change later. Now goodnight."
"But dad--!"
"Goodnight."